Expanding the Weekly Free Champion Rotation

RiotRiot Cactopus·Aug 2, 2017·1 votes·78,394 views

Hi friends,

Recently, we've seen players asking for us to expand the weekly free champion rotation beyond just 10 champs. So that's what we're going to do!

Since we’ve added a lot more champions over the last few years, updating our model to include 10% of all champions instead of just 10 is just fair.

Starting now, there will be 14 champions in the free-to-play rotation going forward. Whenever we eventually release our 145th champ, we'll increase the rotation to 15 free champs (we're rounding up).

Thanks for giving us your feedback! We hope you enjoy the change.

95 Comments

LostFr0stAug 2, 201744 votes

I think this is really cool^^ Thank whichever team decided on it for us.

p.s. I think you missed a chance to plant a Taliyah rotation meme in there.

RiotRiot CactopusAug 2, 201757 votes

Taliyah will be in the next rotation. And that should be... RIGHT NOW!

LostFr0stAug 2, 20175 votes

<3 yes I read as such on Reddit. Been waiting so long to try her. Very happy news.

You could have made a funny that you guys needed to do Server maintenance to make space for her XD On second thought maybe not everyone would have got it...

PulseDepthstrideAug 2, 20172 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Cactopus,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=Exl3sEaO,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2017-08-02T17:53:44.077+0000)

Taliyah will be in the next rotation. And that should be... RIGHT NOW!

im ingame i saw taliyah and then someone dodged went to play taliyah again and its missing????

RiotRiot CactopusAug 2, 201712 votes

log out and back in. does that fix it?

Fatty1014Oct 6, 20171 votes

{quoted}

im ingame i saw taliyah and then someone dodged went to play taliyah again and its missing????

why haven't I seen Taliyah in the free rotation 2 months ago in the news?

hopop201Aug 2, 20173 votes

What about Kled and SKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARL?

TheRazorX24Aug 3, 20178 votes

MY GIRL TALIYAH TY DADDY RITO Taliyah Taliyah Taliyah Taliyah Taliyah Taliyah

PurpleKingCrazyAug 3, 20172 votes

Holy smoke Thank you for that!

Even though I own Taliyah. XD

Spice POWAHAug 3, 20172 votes

I don't know who designed Taliyah but tell them she's a fun champ even though I have 0% win rate with her

TehNACHOAug 2, 201711 votes

Cool.

Will there be any pattern as to who those 14 will be chosen? Like, 3 champs that fit in each role except for 1 role that only has two, or would it be based on classes/subclasses?

Fondling GemsAug 3, 20173 votes

You can read up on how free champions are picked here.

grarrrgAug 8, 20171 votes

That post from 7 years ago does quite little to address the current question. For the longest time they've (almost always) had 2 champs for each lane/role. Now that there are +4 champs, is lane still as much of a factor?

LimmieAug 2, 20179 votes

Queue ARAM-only account owners bawling

PaladinNOAug 3, 20172 votes

ARAM-only account owners

They really should "kneel in fear, because the Grim Ritoer is here to harvest".

jdizzle367Aug 2, 20179 votes

This is the reason I'm glad riot made the new client it used to take an act of god and 2/3's vote in the congress to make a change to a gameplay system now they can just go hmm that would be neat and just implement it the next day.

FB OspraeyAug 2, 20176 votes

and yet somehow they will always put rengar and kha'zix together

PyroMissileAug 2, 201712 votes

They want Battles of the Hunt to take place and make gameplay more exciting in blind/draft on these weeks

Irene AdlerAug 2, 20174 votes

{quoted}

and yet somehow they will always put rengar and kha'zix together

It's intentional, they put them together for the hunt quest

SciFi ScrivenerAug 2, 20175 votes

Awesome!!! How long after a champion is released is it eligible for free rotation? I'm looking to try out Kayne Kayn before I purchase him. Also, haven't seen Taliyah Taliyah recently.

Shadow OvertakerAug 2, 20177 votes

Btw newly released champs are in the free rotation 3 weeks after their release, so you can play Kayn then (has it been 3 weeks yet? I have no clue).

vahlîaAug 3, 20172 votes

I bought Kayn and TBH hes really fun to play but very weak and without a great start hes practically usless late game

AevilokAug 4, 20171 votes

try going in a lane with him with deathfire touch, every time you land w instead of one passive orb you get 5, 1 for w and 1 for each deathfire tick, you usually evolve at min 7-8, even when super behind. Also, max w for maximum poke damage and if you are behind pick darkin and build hybrid ad/deffensive items (black cleaver, maw of malmortius, guardian angel, etc) if you are ahead tho, pick assassin and roam a lot and don't forget to push tower after the enemy laners are dead. Gl Hf :)

MGD1998Aug 7, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Awesome!!! How long after a champion is released is it eligible for free rotation? I'm looking to try out Kayne before I purchase him. Also, haven't seen Taliyah recently.

3 weeks, so this week!!!

TrawlOrFeadAug 2, 20174 votes

Wow, that's some rapid reaction right there! Respect, Riot.

SpideraxeAug 2, 20173 votes

Don't take this in an insulting way but how come you guys didn't do this earlier

PyronormAug 2, 20171 votes

It probably just wasn't a priority for them. 10 champs is all that's really needed, so updating it would have taken effort away from bug fixes/upcoming changes. It still does, we as a community have just made it enough of a complaint that it's more worth it to look at.

ItsbeghdevAug 2, 20173 votes

It can't have been nearly as difficult to implement as some of the other small QoL stuff they've been doing this year (not even the first time they've added champs to free week, what with the experimental ten free supports thing, and free assassins for Blood Moon only)--but it is just a big decision to make.

BS3Aug 2, 20173 votes

Love this idea! I already have all champs, but my wife doesn't so hopefully this will help her find a new champion she enjoys.

PS: You have two different apostrophes used in your post... it's triggering me :'( [Thus proving my suspicion of copy pasta]

CoolKnightSTAug 3, 20173 votes

Fine with this change, but please limit that amount of Yasuo weeks

ZaneShadowAug 5, 20173 votes

Thank you guys:). I've been supper happy how these last few months you've done a lot of free work for us players. I'm excited for runes and glad to get to test out more champions.

InklingsAreLegalAug 2, 20172 votes

TALIYAH WOOOOOO WE FUCKING DID IT

AsuyuiAug 2, 20172 votes

I can't uderstand why the rota is keeping changing every few hours i just saw draven and ahri... and now i have taliyah are the rota is changing every hour ?

HemperonteAug 2, 20172 votes

{quoted}

I can't uderstand why the rota is keeping changing every few hours i just saw draven and ahri... and now i have taliyah are the rota is changing every hour ?

Same happened to me yesterday. I think they were just implementing it so it prob took a while to update/bugfix. Because they made a post I can assume it's fixed now

Martyn CZAug 2, 20172 votes

Until you change "free" champions to be able to get me key fragments I will not be interested in playing those "free" champions even I was able them all not just 14... Unless this change has already been made and slipped my notice.

HolmatAug 2, 20178 votes

You don't even get key fragments from playing games anymore. You get them through the honor system. The message at the end of games that says you can't get key fragments while playing champs you don't own is just a leftover from before the honor rework.

hopop201Aug 2, 20174 votes

You sadly still can't get chests from playing champions on free rotation that you don't own. item 3070

Mr AlfabetAug 3, 20172 votes

You're actually not rounding up, you're just rounding off. Rounding up would be having 15 free champs when the champ pool has 141.

XhatannAug 3, 20173 votes

Soooooooo 10% = Amount of Champions / by 10 = Amount of Champs in Rotation 141/10= 14,1 wich rounded is 14, since you round up by >=,5

Guess you should pay a bit mor attention in mathclass :3

xXFrostyMustyXxAug 2, 20171 votes

Why isnt taliyah free? item 3070

PulseDepthstrideAug 2, 20172 votes

{quoted}

Why isnt taliyah free?

she is ... well was for me. then she vanished

IdveYsUfSKAug 2, 20171 votes

Thank you riot. But can you please stop including top tier meta champs in the free rotation. Instead include low play rate champs to encourage more variation for players to pick up.

AneirinAug 3, 20173 votes

So new players shouldn't be able to learn the best champs?

IegendUnknownAug 2, 20171 votes

i dont know if its a but or not but i got ahri, ezreal, ivern and rumble for free even though they are not in the free champ rotation? its very confusing but i was able to play ezreal for a game even though he was not free and i couldve chose ahri ivern rumble and more is it a bug?

Pres22Aug 2, 20172 votes

Did you just hit level 6 or something? I know the level 1-5 free week is different than the real free week and once you level up you get the actual weeks rotation.

IegendUnknownAug 7, 20171 votes

no im level 30 and im silv 5

ThatTableGuyAug 7, 20171 votes

Since they're so cheap and easy to purchase, do you think we could remove champions that cost 450 ip from the rotation?

grarrrgAug 8, 20171 votes

They will likely stay in the rotation. For many reasons. If you buy a 450IP champion, and wind up hating them, then it's still wasted IP. In-game there is no difference between a 'cheap' champion and any other champion. I can see cost being a minor factor > free less often. But not a major factor.

UnsocialPlane3Aug 9, 20171 votes

For 6300 IP you can buy fourteen 450 IP champs... I think the point is most people want to try out the higher end champs because they are pricier and harder to get your hands on.

grarrrgAug 10, 20172 votes

Again, if you buy someone and hate them, it is still wasted IP regardless of what they cost. I don't have a problem with lowering the frequency on the "cheap ones", but they need to stay in the rotation.